Photograph by: Shaughn Butts
, Edmonton Journal

According to the agreed statement of facts, the Scrivens, both users of crack cocaine, spent the last few months of Gagnon’s life torturing her, on their isolated acreage near Sherwood Park. The statement describes Michael laughing and calling out “This is funny” as he videotaped his wife relentlessly beating Gagnon. He also shot videos of Gagnon trying to escape a painfully uncomfortable spiked “jail cell” they’d built in their garage.

When she died, on Nov. 20, 2009, Gagnon, who was almost blind and had difficulty walking, had been confined, 24 hours a day, in an old school bus, without access to a toilet. The bus was unheated; temperatures that week fell to -11 C.

At death, she weighed 65 pounds, half the appropriate weight for a women of her age and height of five feet, two inches.

But Gagnon didn’t starve or freeze. She died of blunt force head trauma. There was no evidence to show who struck the fatal blow, or whether Gagnon fell and hit her head.

The Scrivens were initially charged with assault, unlawful confinement, and manslaughter. But their lawyers argued RCMP first interviewed the Scrivens as witnesses, not suspects, without telling them their rights, making their initial statements inadmissible. Eventually, the couple pleaded guilty, merely to failing to provide the necessaries of life.

But this case isn’t about one dysfunctional family.

For the more than 20 years, Gagnon had lived in group homes and supportive housing, where she was well-cared for. Her caregivers received financial support from the province’s PDD program, which supports persons with developmental disabilities.

But in 2005, according to the agreed statement of facts, the province, unable to find another placement for her, sent her to live with her sister. Court records say the family applied for financial support from PDD, but was rejected.

According to handwritten PDD records, which were entered into evidence during the preliminary hearing, and obtained by the CBC through court order, Denise Scriven began contacting PDD staff and public health nurses in February 2009, begging for help. Describing herself as severely depressed and desperate, she implored them to find a group home or long-term care bed for her sister.

Case notes indicate Michael Scriven threatened to drop Gagnon at the Robin Hood Association in Sherwood Park, which offers day programs and group homes for developmentally disabled adults. The Scrivens were told Robin Hood had “absolutely no space available” and that it might take up to a year to find an appropriate group home or long-term care bed.

A few months later, PDD staff tried to arrange for Gagnon and the Scrivens to meet with an intake worker from I.C.E., or Independent Counselling Enterprises, another not-for-profit agency for the developmentally disabled. But when I.C.E. and PDD workers called and wrote to Denise to make an appointment, there was no answer. Nor did they get any response from Gagnon’s elderly father in Calgary. On Sept. 23, a handwritten note recorded Gagnon’s file as closed.

Oberle won’t comment on his department’s handling of the case: the sentence is subject to appeal, and a fatality inquiry is pending. Once the inquiry has ruled, he says, the government will consider its findings.

However, he notes Gagnon was not a ward of the province, but a legal adult. As such, he says, PDD was not legally responsible to monitor her care.

“The family had legal guardianship, which complicated things,” says Oberle. “I can’t comment on a specific case. But it’s not the government’s role of check up on families.”

In a child welfare case, the province is supposed to keep tabs on a child who has been apprehended and then returned to a parent’s care. But it seems there was no legal mechanism to inspect the Scriven home.

Gagnon’s file didn’t just fall through the cracks — it fell through a gaping hole in the system. She was as vulnerable as any foster child. But once she went to live with relatives, there was no legal protocol to ensure she was safe.

While Gagnon’s case notes describe a dire shortage of group homes, Oberle still plans to close most of the Michener Centre, and move 125 residents into community care. Deinstitutionalization sounds noble, but it can’t work if community placements aren’t available and safeguards aren’t in place.

It’s fine for the province to respect the sanctity of the family home, to insist vulnerable people — children, the elderly, the developmentally disabled — are best off in the care of relatives. But “the family” isn’t always the happy place our leaders imagine. Sometimes, it is the government’s role to check up on families, to protect those at risk from the very people who are supposed to love them.

On Wednesday, the government introduced Bill 30, new legislation to eliminate regional PDD boards and centralize power and responsibility with Human Services. The tragedy of Betty Anne Gagnon shows that something must be done. Well, this is something.